Man is God’s plaything, and that is the best part of him. Therefore, life must be lived as play. -Plato
While scanning the marriage proposals published in a Sunday newspaper I spied a tiny advertisement which said: “A good-looking educated woman seeks a fun-loving husband.” The term “fun-loving” can mean many things to many people. However, you can ask the question: Do you get married to have fun? Here again opinions may differ from the serious to the ridiculous.
When shops put up shutters during the pandemic, I saw a large number of people waiting in a long queue at a supermarket. I thought they were waiting to buy essential food items. Within minutes I came to know that all of them were waiting to buy bottles of arrack. In another place I saw another queue to buy cigarettes. Liquor and cigarettes have a big demand as they are supposed to be fun-producing items.
Apart from consumers of alcohol and smokers, others too are on a quest for fun. It is said people in developed countries are on a fun jag of almost incalculable dimensions. The ‘Journal of Social Issues’ published in the United States has discovered the emergence of fun morality. The magazine further said the quest for fun shows signs of being a runaway national compulsion.
Birth of fun
The quest for fun begins during our infancy. The infant lies in its cot unable to do anything other than crying. However, an infant is a bundle of joy. Life explodes within it. Every time it squirms, sniffs, gasps, kicks and gapes, it ignites some fresh sensations. Gradually he begins to recognise shapes, motions, sounds and smells. Incomprehensible sounds storm about him, but he cannot identify them. He gets used to diverse aromas and stinks that flood alternately. In his waking hours, he grins, breaks wind and mentally orbit invisible moons.
As the infant grows up, his surroundings come into focus. He begins to see the dazzling world around him. He tries to grab everything nearby and enjoys his life. When he starts attending school he stifles much of his unfettered joy. However, he will not give up the quest for fun. When he becomes a young man he wants to fall in love or to flirt with members of the opposite sex.
When you become an adult you are free to choose the way to satisfy your quest for fun. Some people are drawn to sports. In a recent survey they found more than ten million golfers, 3,500,000 skiers and 17 million hunters.
The film industry caters to millions of people who wish to see their celluloid heroes and spend some time in a fantasy world. Television, computers, mobile phones and tabs bring us an imaginary world where we see happy couples running around trees and singing love songs. People view them voraciously being unaware that they have become patrons of the fun market.
Moral decadence
As long as you see fun as divine, you will fail to see the moral decadence coming with it. If you think of having some fun throwing morals to the winds, the damage to the social fabric can be tremendous. In the name of fun, you may turn the weekend into a fiesta. In everything we do, the play instinct is ubiquitous.
Psychologist Joyce Brothers says, “Rebellion is partly based on the urge to have fun.” In 1972 a group of young men and women took up arms against the elected Government. It proved the point that making a revolution is fun for the young. Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman said, “Fun is just getting banged, fighting in the streets and roasting pigs.” Instead of roasting pigs, young rebels in Sri Lanka decapitated leading men.
Our desire for fun comes naturally to us. As they say we are born out of fun and are born into it. Fun seekers want to create and live in another world. This is the very essence of fun. Whoever grasps this truism will realise at once why man loves the rolling sea.
Our desire to be rocked by someone else comes from our infancy. Infants love being rocked. Man does not want to remain still like a rock. He wants to move, do something and enjoy life. Psychologists say disequilibrium is the very essence of infantile joy. When children grow up they want to visit amusement parks to satisfy their quest for fun.
Even as adults we want to soar high on a swing and see the world from a different perspective. If you look at the world from a mountain top, you will realise the real joy of life. That is why people climb mountains, trees and skyscrapers. Even the seesaw, the kite and the hoop give us immense pleasure. In dancing we induce a dizzy elation. We listen to music almost daily, but we do not get tired of it. When we watch a beautiful dancer, we become passive dancers.
Play instinct
Fun is available almost everywhere, but you should enjoy yourself without disturbing or hurting others. Sometimes we tend to think that those who turn somersaults, flying up in planes and jumping out in parachutes are crazy people. All of them enjoy what they do.
Children play with toys but adults play musical instruments. Dr A.T.W. Simeons, an English physician, wrote: “Modern man plays from earliest infancy until he dies. Only the nature of his toys changes with the years.” The play instinct in man is very powerful and it includes the sex drive.
Unfortunately, fun has now become a consumer product. We are bombarded with advertisements directing us to health resorts, holiday destinations and fun-packed trips to foreign countries. We have been urged to feel that fun is lying elsewhere, not in our surroundings.
Tourists fly to distant places looking for fun. Even we want to go out and find happiness elsewhere. We are blissfully unaware that happiness or fun lies within us or within our reach. You do not have to travel thousands of kilometers looking for fun. It is lying at your doorstep.
Fun is the antidote to all fears. When you do not enjoy yourself in simple situations, fear comes through the backdoor. To enjoy life, be positive in your attitudes. Laugh, sing and be cheerful whenever possible. Be enthusiastic about small matters. Look at the butterfly and the spider and learn how they live happily. If you are destined to become a great man, it will happen. Go to the beach and collect a few seashells. Sit somewhere comfortably and look at the waves and the silent mighty sea beyond. You will find the answer to your quest for fun.